Growing up in the mid to late nineties, I'm more than familiar with remixes. And just as most summer blockbusters ended on a tenuous rap ('Addams Family Whoomp', anyone?), most every single came with a lazy club-mix attached.
Course, my thoughts on remixes cannot be summed up in one flippant remark. I love remixes and remixing. You only have to listen to Jacques Greene's take on Radiohead's, 'Lotus Flower', Boards of Canada's retelling of Beck's, 'Broken Drum', or absolutely anything by lil' spaceman to realise there's something unusually beautiful about this distractive act.
Tomorrow I will be releasing my version of The Inconsistent Jukebox's genre-hopping masterpiece, 'Bold Ego Fledgling (Baby's Got It All Planned)'. And even though it'd be pretty foolish to compare it to any of the above, it still feels like a small victory for me. Anyway, why not enjoy the Snaithilicious guitars in their untainted glory below, then the plethora of other remixes here.
Like most my recent 'Wou-Wou' releases, my take on Unhealthy Attachment's, 'The Forest', has been in the works for quite a while now. And I know that could be taken as if it was a hardship to work on, like it was tricky to mold into something different... but it couldn't be further from the truth.
The main body of the track come very easily; the chords just fell to my fingers. The sounds that I tend to fall back on fit together well with the quality and tenderness of the vocals. I guess it just needed to sit for a while for me to appreciate it properly, because I was going to record and fit-in-the-mix, I left. Blemishes and all.
Anyway, I'm pleased to say that 'The Forest (Wou-Wou Remix)', will be out on SoundCloud from tomorrow...
... but while you wait, here's the original song:
Lastly, the long promised 'Wou-Wou' Esty shop will make an appearance later on in the week alongside the usual arty stuff. More details to come.
Last month I hinted that my remix of New Biboujin's track 'Son of Alexei' was ripe for release. Then, as with most things I hint at, it never happened. But after wrestling with it some more, it's now ready... or as ready as it'll ever be.
Truth is, I struggled with this one a bit. Not because I was low on ideas, but because I was adrift on so many. The vocal stems in particular led me down so many avenues that at one point the running-time for this track was well over ten minutes. And it's not that I've a problem with long songs, but it sounded disjointed, messy, without direction. I re-started again and again. And even though I have managed to nip and tuck, here and there, it still sounds a like a collection of ideas and not a linear piece of music to me.
But maybe that's what gives it charm, because regardless of its flaws, I can't help but like it. If it'd been anything else, I probably would've quite trying to make it work and moved on to something else... but it just kept calling me back.
All the same, 'Son of Alexei (Wou-Wou Remix)' will be streamable via SoundCloud tomorrow.
While I'm floating on the subject of "hints", this week I hinted that the first 'Wou-Wou' zine would be available at the end of the month. And, much like, 'Son of Alexei', I've been hinting and toying around with zines since last summer. And yet again, it's been the wealth of ideas in-which to fill them that has set me back. I've now a number of concepts and stories outlined in my notebook, but where to begin?
Well, to answer that, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Friday, as I'm still deciding myself! But whatever it is, there will be a free PDF of it! So if you wish, you can download that and print it off yourself.
Lastly, there will be a postcard giveaway on Wednesday as promised! Details to which will surface midweek.
New York funk rockers, Three Hippos Deep, let me take their tracks to the chopping block, and tomorrow I unveil my efforts in the '3HD [EP]'...
My goals for these remixes (much like the remix that I did for 'Storm the Palace') was to make something that stood apart from the original, but not so much that the two are totally disconnected from each other. I want you to be able to listen to both the original and the remix side-by-side without feeling like you'd just listened to the same thing twice, but deep down you know that they're related somehow.
But mostly, I wanted to make something playful and fun. 3HD's music appeals to me for much the same reasons. That and it funks like hell! But the fun factor was high on my list.
Anyway, I could try and describe something that you can't hear for hours, but instead why don't you come back tomorrow and hear it for yourself. But while you're waiting, why not wrap your ears around the funky originals to get a taste of what's to come. Bon appétit!
March has been a busy month, with remixes and collaborations coming at me from all directions! But however exciting this may be, it's turning out to be a double-edged sword. My 'WRITING BY CHANCE' (which I was planning to have finished for the end of March) has now fallen by the wayside. Although this is probably no loss, as I'm not really much of a writer however enthusiastic I may be. And with the end of winter, I feel that it is time to let go and move on to some new, none-chance-based experiments. That said, my 'Buskers' Bamboozle' inspired 'MUSIC BY CHANCE' series will continue 'till its resolve, many, many months from now.
Speaking of 'MUSIC BY CHANCE', I released the second EP at the beginning of the week. And in a similar fashion to the first release, I'd like to do a brief track-by-track. So if you'll amuse me...
0201: COME TO FINISH
RESULTS FROM THE BAMBOOZLE:
Chords: Minor (1-♭3-5) only
Tempo: 178BPM
Time Signature: 5/4
No. of Chords: 5
Root of Chord: D♭/C♯, C, B, G♭/F♯, D
I've become increasingly interested in vocal manipulation and I guess that's how this track came to sound like it does, with multiple samples used rhythmically and more obviously in the mangled voice. There's also a lot of other sounds from around and about, including a bathroom pull cord from my old flat.
0202: START TO GLOSS
RESULTS FROM THE BAMBOOZLE:
Chords: Minor (1-♭3-5) only
Tempo: 135BPM
Time Signature: 5/4
No. of Chords: 4
Root of Chord: D♭/C♯, F, G, B
It's a slight departure from my usual sound. A lot more electronic, and maybe a little game-like, but with a guitar twist. I guess this track comes from my love of electronic music from the 60's/70's. It has a sort of feel to it, to me at least. But then the whole EP does. Strange chords progressions and unfamiliar time-signatures have found me lean more towards an electronic way of doing things. Something I may address in the next 'MBC' release... Is it time to dig out my reel-to-reel?
0302: APOLOGETIC SCREW
RESULTS FROM THE BAMBOOZLE:
Chords: Minor (1-♭3-5) only
Tempo: 128BPM
Time Signature: 4/4
No. of Chords: 6
Root of Chord: B, A♭/G♯, C, B♭/A♯, A♭/G♯, C
I'm not much of a gamer, but I've always enjoyed the music of those old arcade games, and '0302' sees me attempting to mimic it, in a half-arsed kind of fashion. It's not 8-bit, even 16-bit, but it has that vibe to it. A mile away from what I was going to do with it, but once I'd finished the track above, I thought it'd be fun to explore the electronica theme further.
To finish off, two rather exciting chunks of 'Wou-Wou' news. The first 'lil' spaceman's' perfectly suited video for his version of 'Glory Hole'...
... the second is 'E-Ruizzo's' super hot prog-rock release, and the synesthesia artwork that he asked me to do for it.
More daily doodles, paintings and maybe, just maybe, I'll start to work on those collages that I've been teasing for the last few weeks. Also planning to resurrect something from my 'Major Gubbins' archives... I'll keep you "posted".
Just over a month ago I received a rather exciting little message from Storm the Palace. In it the question... "Do you ever do remixes?!"
I wasn't sure, I'd never been asked before. I mean, my own music is basically me remixing myself, taking my old recordings and rehashing them into something else. But doing that to someone else's music, there's a weight to that, a responsibility that I'd never had to deal with before. To honour the original, but make it your own... It was of course an opportunity that I couldn't say no to.
To cut a dull story short, after hours (more like days) of slicing and dicing, my adaptation of 'Spiral of Right' will finally be unleashed on SoundCloud tomorrow.
But wait, before you go, I urge you to go check out Storm the Palace. And don't just stop at the track above, go listen to all of their elegant, awe-inspiring music over on their own SoundCloud page... you will not be disappointed.
